SONIC BOOM: Mum had to Google why RAF jets escorted her Air France flight in to land

Darren Burke

A mum travelling aboard the airliner intercepted by two RAF Typhoon jets which caused massive sonic booms across Doncaster had to Google why the plane was being escorted.

Joanne Knights was travelling to Newcastle Airport from Paris when she looked out of the window and noticed the fighter jets on Monday night, according to the Newcastle Evening Chronicle.

The two fighter jets were scrambled from RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire to intercept the Air France flight after it lost radio contact. As the jets went supersonic over Doncaster, they created two huge "explosions" which were reported across huge swathes of Yorkshire.

But Joanne, one of the passengers aboard the flight, admitted that she had to find out the answer to why her plane had been accompanied in to land later on the internet.

She told the Chronicle: “We noticed that the plane had gone out over the sea, but there was no communication from any of the cabin crew as to what was going on. Then we looked out to one side of the plane and saw two fighter jets.

“Obviously, you get worried - I thought, ‘why on earth are two fighter jets outside?’ All sorts runs through your mind."

Joanne, 39, from Stokcton, was returning from a birthday and wedding anniversary celebration in Paris with husband Steven, a doctor.

She added: “There was police waiting on the runway, but we didn’t know what for. It was only later when I Googled what had happened I found out why the fighter jets had been scrambled.

“There wasn’t panic on the plane, but there was an atmosphere of confusion. If they had just told us what was happening, it would have set a few minds at ease," she told the newspaper.